Tim Sherwood has criticised the Tottenham Hotspur squad for being "too nice" and lacking "guts" and "characters" following their 4-0 defeat at Chelsea. He added that the club needed to "wake up" if they ever want to get back into the top four.

Spurs completely folded after a harsh 59th-minute penalty made it 2-0 to Jose Mourinho's side, but the club's head coach was far more critical of his own team than the referee's decision.

"You can't legislate for the capitulation – you can't have that," he said. "Lack of characters, too many of them too nice to each other, and you need to show a bit more guts and not want to be someone's mate all the time. They need to drag it out of each other.

"It hurts me and I won't forget about this when we hit the motorway, but some might.

"We've got the Europa League on Thursday and we owe the fans a performance," he added. "We let them down again on the big occasion. You won't finish in the top four if you don't beat top teams. You're miles away unless you beat the top teams.

"There have been too many blips. The club talks about fourth – wake up."